If you went to school in the 70s/80s what happened that wouldn't happen now?

[TheVampiresWife]

I started primary in 1976, left secondary in 1989. Some of mine:

Corporal punishment (the most obvious one for a lot of us I think). In junior school (early 80s) we had a headmaster who would save all the week's canings for Friday afternoon assembly. The kids lined up on stage and were caned in front of the whole school. It was fucking horrific looking back - I remember a boy in my year crying and wetting himself on stage and he never lived it down, the nicknames followed him to secondary school

Girls doing needlework/cookery while boys did woodwork/metalwork

Boy in my class whose surname was Gaye. Geography teacher used to call him 'Poof' and 'Queer' which of course other kids found hilarious and joined in. He changed his surname halfway through secondary school

In my primary class an overweight girl was made to stand on a chair so the whole class could see what we would look like if we were greedy and ate too much

The headmaster who caned kids on stage also used to get girls to kiss him on the cheek and say thank you at prize givings. He also used to make comments about how we were 'developing' and once said in a conversation with my mum that I was getting 'a broad back'. The mums didn't seem to mind his comments

In primary school the children in the SEN class were described as [vile word I can't bring myself to type] by teachers and children alike quite unselfconsciously

In secondary school an English teacher had an affair with a sixth former and she became pregnant. He left but wasn't reprimanded and got a teaching job in another school the following year. The couple are still together all these years later!

It really was a different time and not necessarily for the better, either. I do have lots of happy memories of school too though!

I had an awful heavy period and cramps one week so my mum wrote me a note getting me out of PE. The teacher read the note and then called everyone to attention while she read it out loud to the whole class. Than I got a lecture about how periods were not a good excuse for getting out of PE and it was better to exercise. Cheers Miss.

@TheVampiresWife

Communal showers were thankfully never a thing in my school. The showers were there but they stopped using them a few years before - the older kids all had less than fond memories of them.

Same here, I never had to go through the humiliation of being naked in front of others. I wouldn't have done it actually, I'd have refused and/or gone missing, but the situation did not arise.

Your gym teacher losing his shit and holding a classmate under the large and sharp paper cutter (a student ran to get help during that) A second year student with severe ADHD (don't know if it was diagnosed in '81) having a refrigerator box placed around his desk so he couldn't see or be seen and the open part behind the student taped and sealed so he couldn't leave his desk (like crime scene tape) A teacher threatening to "kick you out" with the door closed" Yeah I don't miss my school years

I went to school in Australia, but many things the same (apart from the things brought in for the Nature Table!)
“Remedial” classes. Basically, kids with any disability, aboriginal kids. Dumping ground.
Corporal punishment. Our year 6 teacher fashioned a special whacking stick from a piece of wood. Apparently hurt less than the cane.
6th form, all invited to beach party at “cool” teachers house. One 6th former had been living with him half the year.
Going to pub at lunch and studiously avoiding the teachers on the other side of the bar.
School dances where we were given an agents book of bands and we could choose. The head vetoed AC/DC , but the replacement band had a bunch of girls for a “party” after.
Creepy drama teacher, often giving “coaching” sessions to leads in plays.
Announcing, (as 6th form) that we were putting on a play, skiving off lessons then commandeering the hall for the afternoon.

Smoking in school, ice cream can stationed everyday in school playground, no uniform, headmaster smoking his pipe all children could see it, freedom of style( punks,mods,teddyboys,trendies,grunge,soulboys etc ) brilliant school and we all did well.

Forgot to mention Tuckshop run by fellow schoolkids

I started school in 71 and left in 82 and our headmaster at secondary school had a slipper and a cane for the boys to use on their backsides and they threatened to cane girls on the hand. I never heard of anyone getting the cane/slipper though, so it was more of a threat.

Aged 15 on a non-uniform day, one of the older girls walked in to deliver something for the teacher. The girl was wearing tight jeans and the teacher’s eyes were on stalks, he was like phroar as she walked out, said it out loud to the boys and he raised his arm in a thrusting fashion (like cor I'd give her one)…what teacher would get away with that now.

I also remember in one craft class we was using newspaper and there was tons of page 3 pictures which the boys taunted us girls with.

A local “perv/weirdo” used to stand outside our primary school and take photos of the kids (this was the 80s). My Dad wasn’t worried as someone else had “had a word” and said perv had told him there was no film in the camera.

The smell of Dettlol still reminds me of the wood shavings, from a metal bucket, tipped on top of vomit to soak it up. Then it was shovelled up and mopped with Dettol.

The Mum of a child in my class went into hospital unexpectedly. There was no-one to look after him so he went home with our teacher for a few days.

Having to stand on one foot like a flamingo for an athletes' foot check by our PE teacher at the start of each term. Those communal showers. Late 70s.

Going to the pub with one of our lecturers at lunch time in the A level years. Getting in free to the nightclub owned by one of our peripatetic teachers aged 16 or so. Early 80s.

@TheVampiresWife

I started primary in 1976, left secondary in 1989. Some of mine:

Corporal punishment (the most obvious one for a lot of us I think). In junior school (early 80s) we had a headmaster who would save all the week's canings for Friday afternoon assembly. The kids lined up on stage and were caned in front of the whole school. It was fucking horrific looking back - I remember a boy in my year crying and wetting himself on stage and he never lived it down, the nicknames followed him to secondary school

Girls doing needlework/cookery while boys did woodwork/metalwork

Boy in my class whose surname was Gaye. Geography teacher used to call him 'Poof' and 'Queer' which of course other kids found hilarious and joined in. He changed his surname halfway through secondary school

In my primary class an overweight girl was made to stand on a chair so the whole class could see what we would look like if we were greedy and ate too much

The headmaster who caned kids on stage also used to get girls to kiss him on the cheek and say thank you at prize givings. He also used to make comments about how we were 'developing' and once said in a conversation with my mum that I was getting 'a broad back'. The mums didn't seem to mind his comments

In primary school the children in the SEN class were described as [vile word I can't bring myself to type] by teachers and children alike quite unselfconsciously

In secondary school an English teacher had an affair with a sixth former and she became pregnant. He left but wasn't reprimanded and got a teaching job in another school the following year. The couple are still together all these years later!

It really was a different time and not necessarily for the better, either. I do have lots of happy memories of school too though!

OMG this sounds horrific! Especially the poor overweight girl. Talk about scarring someone for like! And the cane in the 70's 80's!!

I was born in '72 so I guess I started primary in 1977 a year after you. There was none of this apart from the girl/boy needlework/ metalwork!

The only other thing I can think of that's different and better with my kids school is they stagger breaks with different year groups whereas when I was young you were a 6 yr old in a play ground with up to 11 year olds. The bullying was rife at break time from older kids. That was a pretty bleak memory.

Girls did typing and boys mechanics in 5th year. We went to collage one day a week.

I have to say it's really stood me in good stead. I can touch type without looking and as I work in IT it's really useful.

Scary toilets in a cold outbuilding. Frequented all day by scary reprobate older kids. Izal toilet roll, cold water and no hand-wash/soap.

I loved primary school - a traditional village school with kids from a variety of backgrounds. Looking back, though, there was no such thing as special needs and clearly several children had difficulties of various kinds.

I don’t think there were dbs checks either, as two of dh’s teachers are now in prison

There was a boy in my primary school who had an unfortunate habit of farting in class (I honestly don't think he could help it). The teacher used to make a big show of telling him how disgusting he was, standing him up and spraying his trousers and his chair with air freshener.

My husband started primary around 1987.

He saw a girl in a wheelchair tipped out of it and told by a teacher "feel the power of christ and let him allow you to walk". Thankfully she wasn't physically hurt, but the teacher called her a liar and attention seeker from then on, saying she refused to walk.

It was a Catholic boys school and next door was the girls. They shared a sports centre, male teachers would find excuses to go through the changing room when the girls were in there, usually saying they were looking for supplies for a class. One teacher married a girl he taught for one year when she was 13-14. They got married within a month of her leaving her new school so who knows how long that went on. By all accounts every male teacher should be rotting in cells. Unfortunately this definitely still happens now.

Husband has just remembered the toilets in a block on the playing field- the older boys would bully the younger boys into sitting on the seat to warm it up for them!

At Primary (1980?) Year 2s or 3s
If you were naughty the punishment was you had to sit next to 'smelly Matthew'

The teachers called him this to the rest of us.

@RaindropsOnRosie

My husband started primary around 1987.

He saw a girl in a wheelchair tipped out of it and told by a teacher "feel the power of christ and let him allow you to walk". Thankfully she wasn't physically hurt, but the teacher called her a liar and attention seeker from then on, saying she refused to walk.

It was a Catholic boys school and next door was the girls. They shared a sports centre, male teachers would find excuses to go through the changing room when the girls were in there, usually saying they were looking for supplies for a class. One teacher married a girl he taught for one year when she was 13-14. They got married within a month of her leaving her new school so who knows how long that went on. By all accounts every male teacher should be rotting in cells. Unfortunately this definitely still happens now.

You do realise that this, if true, would have been equally unacceptable in any year of the 20th century?

The OP’s question was, what was considered OK in the 1970s and 1980s but wouldn’t be permitted now.

Friend and I got left behind on a school trip aged 8. We made our own way back to the school to be greated by a crowd of relieved parents and teachers. Mum and dad were understandably quite upset about the whole episode.

MumofSpud that reminds me of my teacher who told a very neglected little boy in our class that he couldn't go in the pool as he had dirty feet ...as kids we kind of avoided him as he was the child permanently covered in snot (much to my shame), but even I knew she was being a bitch - he would have only been about 7..she could have discreetly got him to give them a wipe with a wet paper towel!

I hope there is a special place in Hell for some of the sadistic teachers on this thread.

Chalkboard (blackboards in those days) dusters (wooden) thrown at the heads of kids.
Teachers smoking
Inappropriate clothing and makeup (teachers)
Being told to play truant rather than disrupt other kids in a class
Use of 'the strap' (corporal punishment)

oh the outside toilets that were from victorian times-i used to hold everything in as best i could

We were allowed a few cans of John Smiths in the classroom on the last day of sixth form. No chance of that happening these days, it’d be craft beer for sure.